Hulu Plus: $9.99 gets you more shows, more devices, same ads

Hulu has finally lifted the curtain on its for-pay subscription service. Hulu …

Hulu has finally announced its long-rumored subscription service, Hulu Plus, though it won't be ad-free as some expected. Instead, Hulu is treating the new service as an extension of the Hulu website for TV-lovers—those who want to take Hulu's content outside of the browser sandbox and onto their mobile devices or, even crazier, onto their TVs.

For $9.99 per month, Hulu Plus subscribers can watch streaming content on Samsung Internet-connected TVs and Blu-ray players, and on the iPad, iPhone 4 or 3GS, or third-generation iPod touch.

"[T]his is just the first step in our mission to bring you TV wherever you are," Hulu CEO Jason Kilar wrote on the company's blog. "We are already hard at work on porting Hulu Plus to other devices and platforms, with PlayStation 3 coming soon. But that’s a story for another day."

Kilar did not specifically mention it in his blog post, but Microsoft confirmed to Ars that Hulu Plus would be available on the Xbox 360 for the launch as well. The Xbox 360 will offer Hulu Plus subscribers "controller-free navigation with Kinect and Xbox Live Parties so you can watch with friends no matter where they are."

In addition to the expanded list of devices you can watch Hulu content on, Hulu Plus subscribers will also get access to full (and back) seasons of some of their favorite shows. (Many TV shows already offer this for free through the Hulu website, but many others do not—back seasons are a near impossibility when it comes to most of the shows I watch. Even trying to watch a show that aired two weeks ago can be a challenge sometimes.)

The Hulu Plus teaser page has a list of shows that will be available, including all six seasons of The Office, all nine seasons of The X-Files, and 118 other full seasons.

Hulu goes cable

"[W]e believe that any lasting solution to the challenge of making TV show discovery and viewing dramatically easier has to work for all three of our customers, and those are our end users, our advertisers, and our content suppliers," wrote Kilar. "For our advertisers, who allow us to keep our Hulu Plus price low with the support of ad revenue, we offer one of the world’s most effective advertising platforms, with the ability to speak effectively to users across a variety of devices, anywhere they happen to be."

While this may be a turnoff for some potential subscribers, it fits with the cable industry's much-loved "dual stream" revenue model of subscriptions plus ads.

For now, Hulu Plus is only open to a limited number of Hulu users, though you can request an invitation on the teaser page (Kilar says the company will send out invitations in waves over the coming months, so it may be a while after you submit the request.)

When we get access, we'll post a full hands-on to let you know what the service is like.